A Knight And Her Squire
by Cybercitizen
Summary: Elsa Frostir has been training a new squire in her ranks, a young lass named Anna. While training one day, Elsa hopes to bring out the girl's best technique with a sword and hopefully, train her to be a warrior that equals her skill on the battlefield. (Elsanna, Non-related, Collab with Halla, Fantasy AU)


Elsa Frostir looked down at the training yard in the guard barracks, watching a young redhead hack away at a training dummy with her sword. The girl's technique was sloppy, unfocused, and yet, Elsa still saw the fire in the girl's eyes.

The girl was her squire, her knight in training. Her name was Anna Maidenhelm and she'd been under Elsa's tutelage for over a month now. Her skills were getting better, but Elsa knew she had a great deal more to learn.

As Elsa strode down to the yard, dressed fully in her icy blue armour, she admired Anna more closely. "You're still holding the blade too tightly."

"You said I was holding it too loosely yesterday," Anna remarked, striking the dummy again. "Make up your mind."

Elsa sighed. "A swordsman must find a good balance when holding their blade, Anna. It is clear you require time to learn that balance."

"Good thing I'm your top student, my lady," Anna said playfully, pulling one of her hair braids behind her back.

Anna slammed the sword into the dummy again, cutting into the fabric enough that some straw flew out. She wasn't making much progress though. Hard as her hits were, she should have been tearing the thing to shreds. The backlash was probably hurting Anna worse, though.

Elsa walked forward, grabbing the hilt of her own sword. Anna glanced up and stepped back, shoulders sagging. Her bottom lip jutted out from a pout. She knew what was coming.

"Power comes from _balance_ ," Elsa said. "Transferring energy from the ground up, into your body, then into your limbs." She pulled her weapon back with ease, getting ready to strike. "And allowing it to flow into your sword as an extension of you."

The metal cut through the air. Though it made no sound, Elsa still felt it sing right before it cleaved the dummy in half. Her weapon was back into its hilt before the too half hit the ground. Anna stared back in awe, even though she'd seen the same demonstration dozens of times before.

Elsa shot Anna one more glance. " _Loose hands_. If I wanted a mammoth with only power to take down enemies, I would have taken Oaken as my squire."

Oaken, of course, didn't fight, but the comparison seemed to get through to Anna. She flushed and looked down, nodding her head. The defiance she showed earlier retreated as she stepped back up to the broken dummy.

"Go get a new one," Elsa said, rolling her eyes.

Soon, Anna had set up a new training dummy for herself and was once again hacking away at her wooden opponent. As she tried to mimic Elsa's movements, she found herself striking upward on the dummy.

The blonde knight at her side smiled. Her apprentice was getting better at this. Much better indeed.

Anna closed her eyes before taking in a steady breath. She knew she had to impress Elsa. She gently loosened her grip on her sword, before she charged forward at the training dummy.

With one fell swoop, Anna had sliced off the dummy's head, it bouncing on the ground for a few seconds. As she heard Elsa's round of applause, Anna pressed her boot down on the decapitated head of her adversary.

"Did I do well, Mistress?" She inquired, smiling.

"You did very well, Anna," Elsa told her proudly. "You learned your balance perfectly... Although, cutting off your enemy's head isn't exactly an honourable way to finish them off."

Anna giggled. "You know me, my lady. I have a flair for the dramatics." She smirked. "I picked it up from you."

At those words, Elsa remained silent long enough that Anna's smile fell. Then she nodded slowly and said, "Yes... I suppose I can't fault you for that."

Sure Elsa may have been more subtle than Anna, but in most ways, she was so much worse. Part of the reason she refined her technique into what it was now was because Elsa enjoyed the reactions it got. A beautiful, intimidating warrior was a deadly one. Sometimes, half the battle was getting into your foe's head.

Anna beamed again.

"But still retain your dignity when fighting. How you practice -"

"Is how you execute the action," Anna mumbled.

"Very good."

Elsa set a hand on her squire's shoulder; a rare show of approval. It caused the girl's face to explode with fire so immediately that Elsa raised a brow. Her rosy lips twitched, but she was sure Anna couldn't see her amusement. Her squire still had so much to learn… Training was just as much mental as it was physical. _Oh, Anna. You have to keep a level head._

"Anything the matter?"

"N-no, of course not, Mistress!"

Elsa removed the hand. "Let's continue on then."

Next, Elsa decided to test Anna's prowess against a live target, herself. To make sure it was as accurate to an actual battle as possible, she and Anna were suited up in their full armour and helmets.

Anna stared on at Elsa, smirking proudly as she stood in her red armour, her blade in hand. Once Elsa had given the signal, the two women charged at each other at full force.

The blades clashed with a loud crash as Anna gripped her blade in balance, block and landing blows upon Elsa. She knew her mistress was balancing her defence and offence, but she would disrupt that.

Her blade cut past Elsa, but the platinum blonde deflected it, gazing at Anna with her blue eyes. As their gazes met, Anna's heart skipped a beat. Her mentor was truly beautiful, even in the heat of a duel.

Crashing her blade onto Elsa, Anna managed to finally break Elsa's defence, but the blonde smirked. She had prepared for that.

But so had Anna. Within moments, Anna's blade swatted Elsa's blade from her hand and its point was at her neck.

Elsa looked surprised for a moment, before smiling. "Now that was impressive, apprentice. Not many can best me that easily."

Anna somehow looked like she was just as surprised staring at her sword in shock. Yes Anna beat Elsa before, but this was the first time she had done it on her own accord, and so crisply; they both knew it.

"W-wow," Anna blinked, lowering her weapon. "Loose hands," she repeated. "It made it a lot easier to knock your sword back."

"Mmhm," Elsa agreed, eyes glittering with pride. She swiped a piece of hair from her face that had gotten loose during their duel. Sweat had also accumulated on her forehead, so she wiped that off too. Glancing over, she noticed Anna staring dumbly. "Can I help you?"

"O-oh, just… looks good. _You_ look go - Oh my god, no. Stop. Ignore what I'm saying because I clearly have no idea what I'm talking about, M-mistress." She cleared her throat. The redness seeped back into her cheeks, and Anna looked like she was refusing to breathe. "Your _technique_ looks good. T-truly sublime."

Smiling, Elsa put her sword back and unclipped her breastplate. She shook it off and removed her helmet, prompting Anna to quietly do the same.

"I think you look good too," Elsa said.

Anna's head whipped up. She looked shocked and confused like she couldn't determine if she heard Elsa correctly. After a few seconds, she must have determined that she _didn't_ because she swallowed and fidgeted like she had something to say. The knight patiently eyed her.

"I-I have something to admit, Mistress," Anna squeaked. She folded her armour like it gave her something to do, refusing to meet Elsa's gaze. "I, um, really think you're special. Special to _me._ In a way much different than the _usual_ kind of special if you know what I mean."

Elsa bit the inside of her cheek, face softening. "I don't."

"O-oh, that's okay. Nevermind I just -"

"No, tell me," Elsa prompted.

"Mistress…" Anna laughed nervously. "You're very pretty… but that's _not_ why I think you're wonderful, it's just -"

She was cut off by Elsa's lips gently pressing against her temple. Anna stiffened in complete shock, blinking as if trying to comprehend the motion.

"I like you too," Elsa told her, taking her hand in her own.

xXx

 **Author's note:** Another collab this time! This one with my dear friend from the Elsanna discord, Halladelle. She wasn't feeling so great about her writing, so I did this with her and it really made her day. Go and say hi to her if you want and give her the praise she deserves :3 It would mean a lot to me if you did.

See you next time!


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